To Hear is to Obey
by Iamarind
Summary: An innocent-seeming "secret admirer" quickly pulls Ginny into a spiral of hatred and confusion. Can the will of somebody as spunky as Ginny really be torn down?


The first few weeks of my sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were actually fairly normal. 

Well, alright, they weren't normal; nobody's were. Over the past year Voldemort had done so much damage to the Wizarding community that it was doubtful whether or not it could ever recover. The population of Hogwarts was scarcely over half of what it had been a few years earlier, due to so many families moving away or even killed. 

But we didn't like to talk about that. We kept trying to pretend that everybody was fine, that nothing bad was happening, that we weren't scared for our lives and the lives of our families and friends every moment. 

So far, Ron and I had been relatively unscathed by the brutalities. Several of our cousins were dead, but nobody who we were especially close to. It somehow didn't feel real yet, that all of this was really happening. Like it was a dream or something. Even after a year, none of it had sunk in yet. 

Ron, Harry, and Hermione had been helping out with the Order of the Phoenix over the summer. They had helped out the summer before their 6th year as well, in the sense that they'd at least known what was going on. Was I allowed to help? No, of course not. Too brutal for the baby of the family, even if I was as old as _they _were when _they_ were helping out. I'd spent much of the summer stealing the twins' inventions from their store to try to listen in to hear what was going on. I found out more than the adults realized, mostly because it didn't occur to them that I would be good at being sneaky so they didn't bother to use as strong precautions as they did when Fred and George were trying to eavesdrop. 

But I'm going off on a tangent. This story isn't about the Order of the Phoenix-- not directly, anyway. It's certainly not about the summer before my sixth year. So where should I start in telling this story? I guess I should start with the morning that I first got the rose, since that's where all of this really began for me. 

I was awakened by a perfect red rose being dropped onto my stomach. Well, when I was first waking up I hadn't realized that it was a rose. I groaned and shifted, grabbing whatever had just been dropped on my chest, as I was still half asleep. I felt a sharp pain and cried out, "OW!", sitting up and looking down. In my lap was that rose; I'd just pricked my finger on one of the thorns. I tested the thorn again; it was incredibly sharp. If I hadn't known better I'd have thought that someone sharpened them or something. Sticking my finger in my mouth and sucking on it, I inspected the rose. It was a dark, deep red, and its petals were velvety and soft. 

"Unlike the thorns," I muttered, which I was being careful to avoid. 

Laurel and Violet were heavy sleepers, but I woke up Zannia with my shriek of pain. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked over at me. "What's wrong?" she asked groggily. 

I held up the flower for her to see. "Sorry," I said. "Pricked myself."

"Oooh, did Terry send you that?" Zannia got up and went over to my bed to admire it. She wakes up easily, unlike me, and the moment she saw that something romantic had happened she was already out of her bed. "It's perfect!"

"Yeah," I murmured with a smile, bringing it to my nose and inhaling deeply. It smelled divine. 

"You're so lucky, Ginny!" cried Zannia. "And just yesterday you were complaining that he wasn't romantic enough!" She punched me in the arm, and I squeaked in protest of even _more _unintentional pain. 

Zannia was one of my best friends, though she was often much more flamboyant than I was. She had short, bobbed hair that was originally a dull dirty blond but she charmed it to be a bright golden color. She was the type of person who exercised every single day and never ate junk food, ever, but yelled at you if she thought you weren't eating enough or were tiring yourself out. She seemed to think it was especially her job to look out for me and was vicious with people who she thought were dangerous for me and was constantly ordering me around. She was still one of my best friends, though, and I took her antics with a grain of salt. She was just doing what she thought was best. 

"You don't think he heard about that, do you?" I asked worriedly. "I wouldn't want him to feel hurt or anything and make him feel like he _had _to send me something." 

Zannia dismissed that. "So what if he did? If he sends it to you he's obviously not angry. C'mon, we might as well get an early start on the day, yeah?" 

"Good idea. What should I do with the rose?" I held it up. "It probably has a spell to keep it fresh, but I should at least have a place to keep it so it beautifies the room and everything." I grinned at Zannia and twirled the rose around, brushing the soft petals against my face. 

Zannia bit her lip, looking thoughtful. "You don't have a vase do you?" I shook my head, and she sat back on her bed, thinking. "Well, go get a shower Gin and I'll try and think about it while we're getting ready. Just leave the rose on your bed." 

I nodded and headed off, looking forward to a nice warm shower, grateful for the extra ten minutes my early wakeup would give me there. 

So, as you must have figured out, I'd been dating Terry at that point. I'd gotten together with him last spring, and had been dating him through the summer, though we hadn't gotten to be together much then. He wrote every few days and sometimes I'd write back, but only once had he gone through the trouble of meeting me at my house. His letters were far from flowery and poetic, but what could I expect from a guy anyway? 

He was exactly the kind of boyfriend I always seemed to have: handsome (Terry had the advantages of being tall and dark as well) and sweet, we had been together for a long time yet we somehow, through all that, managed to not be that serious. I can be with a guy for a year and still not care a bit if he's suddenly gone. Terry was kind of like that, though I was trying really hard to feel serious about him. I _want _to feel serious about guys. 

We hadn't really done anything besides snogging and a bit of light petting, I thought as I ran the soap over my body in the shower, so that made me feel rather undesirable. Terry and I hadn't even gotten to touching each other under clothes, even though it had been five months. 

"You done yet girl?" Zannia called from the other room. "The others are waking up, sleepyheads, so you'd better hurry up!" 

I sighed and turned off the warm water, shivering as the steam cleared and my wet body was hit with a cold blast of…well, breeze, but if feels a lot colder when you were just really warm, you're naked, and you're wet. 

I reached for my towel and wrapped it around myself, stepping out of the shower. "Yeah, I'm done!" I called back.   


I'd considered a few times if maybe I was a lesbian, since I didn't seem to get close to guys. I made out with my friend Leilani, but went away from that sure that I was straight. I like kissing guys, after all, but sweet as Leilani was it just felt wrong. And I like kissing guys, anyway. Now, of course, she was dating Zannia, but only for a few weeks so far. Not placing any bets on how long those capricious two would be together!

I dried off my hair with a charm and did a few quick beauty charms before emerging and pulling on my robes. I managed to look good _in spite of _my robes, which are generally bought in second-hand stores or, even worse, belonged to my older _brothers_. Luckily I knew good charms to make them look better. 

"Did you think of something to do with the flower?" I asked Zinnia as I walked back into the dorm room. Zinnia grinned at me; she'd charmed the rose's stem to wrap around my bedpost, like ivy. It looked positively enchanting. 

"Hope he send you more, Gin Gin, because it'll look great with even more!" 

"Don't call me Gin Gin," I told her absentmindedly, looking at the rose. It did look great like that. I thanked Zinnia, and our room mates finished getting ready. 

So Zannia, Laurel, Vee and I headed down to breakfast together. Vee and the rest of us weren't really good friends, but she was a nice girl and Zannia, Laurel and I liked being in big groups. Zannia and I broke off from the other two and headed towards the Ravenclaw table. Zannia greeted Leilani with a long kiss as she sat next to her, while I just pecked Terry's cheek and snuggled next to him a we sat down. 

Leilani, as I've mentioned before, was one of my good friends. She'd actually been born in Hawaii, and had a dark complexion and black hair. She'd moved to Britain when she was six, though, and didn't have any strange accents. She's annoyed at peoples' reactions when they find out she's Hawaiian, mostly because she's not the "hot girl" most think of and they say something of the sort when they find out. She's pretty enough, but a little chubby, and she says she hates the beach. Nobody likes to be insulted. Well, not many people. 

"Hey," I chirped cheerfully to Terry as I took a couple pancakes and eggs, "I got the rose this morning. Thanks, it was beautiful. Even though I _did_ prick my finger on it." I pouted at him, then grinned. 

"Rose?" Terry looked at me with a weird look on his face, almost as though I were crazy. "I didn't send you a rose…" 

I turned around to look at Zannia. She shrugged at me, so I turned back to Terry. "…oh," I said. "Sorry. Never mind then." 

I waited for him to say something else, like maybe get upset that some anonymous person was sending his girlfriend red roses, but he just went back to eating. He even gave me the idea that he didn't quite believe there was a rose, or something, which got me really irritated. He urged me to eat more, that I didn't eat enough, and I ignored him as always. We continued normal conversation, how classes were going, what interesting fact either of us had read in a book (it's a good topic of conversation when you're dating a Ravenclaw), and things progressed normally. 

It would be nice to have a possessive boyfriend, though. 

I felt eyes on my back, so I turned around, trying to see why I felt so watched. I looked behind me and after a few sweeps of those behind me, my eyes fell on one Draco Malfoy. He was staring at me alright, staring intently. I scrunched my forehead, trying to figure out what he was doing, but then I shrugged and turned around again. _He's just trying to get to you, Gin, _I told myself. _Best thing to do is ignore him._

I could feel his eyes on my back even worse, though. Of course my imagination was making it worse by that time. 

Between being annoyed by Terry's indifference and creeped out by Draco's… well, just Draco in general, I was glad when it was time for class to start. 

"I'll see you later, okay Terry?" I smiled at him, and he smiled back and hugged me and kissed my lips softly. Mmmm. I kissed back; sometimes I think that the main reason I date is so that I can get kisses whenever I want. We pulled apart, I waved and winked, and then headed over to Advanced Transfiguration. I'd done well on my OWLs last year and was in plenty of NEWT classes this year. The only class I hadn't made the cut for was Potions. Good riddance anyway. I wouldn't have chosen I for NEWTs even if I'd gotten an O on the OWLs. 

The rest of the day passed like any other, although I was still thinking about where that flower came from. 

A personal admirer? I wrote to Laurel when we were sitting in History of Magic. You can't find a single History of Magic class I've been to where I haven't written notes at least part of the time. Try to find one, I dare you. You won't. 

Could be, she wrote back. 

But isn't that kind of arrogant to think that? I can't believe I'd have a secret admirer. I mean, me? It's the kind of thing that girls want to think because it makes them feel special and it's all mysterious and romantic. It was a long note and Laurel was trying to lean over to see what I was saying. I shoed her away and continued writing. _I don't think that's it. _

This time she was talking a long time to write out her reply. I tapped my foot and wrote down a few notes from what Professor Binns was saying about the creators of Arithmancy while she was writing. Finally I got my answer back. 

You just don't like romance, do you Gin? Or don't want to be believe it exists. Be a little optimistic for once, will you? If Terry didn't send you the rose, obviously someone did, and they send it anonymously to. See, they sent it secretly_. So obviously you do have a secret admirer, regardless of what you might think. So there!_

I looked up from the note and Lei stuck her tongue out at me and grinned. I didn't know what to say to that, so I started writing a note on another subject that had irritated me earlier. 

How about Terry's reaction to me getting the rose, huh? Someone's sending red roses to his girlfriend and he doesn't even care_? I mean not even another question about it or anything?_

I waited a moment before sending the note because Professor Binns looked up for a moment. I tried to look studious, and after a moment he looked back down and I passed the note discretely. Believe it or not, I'd already been reprimanded for passing notes in his class, so I had to be careful now. 

Pretty soon I had an answer back from Lei. _So, he's not possessive. Isn't that a good thing? You can cheat on him and don't have to worry about it. _

I kind of want a possessive boyfriend, I admitted to her in the note back to her. _It makes me feel more special, you know? Like he cares more. _

A possessive boyfriend doesn't_ mean he cares more, _she wrote back. 

We were just about to get out of class, so I just looked up at her and rolled my eyes and mouthed "I know" at her. Just then Professor Binns dismissed us, so I gathered up my books and just said it to her. 

"I _know_ that, Lei," I told her as I threw my textbook and notebook into my bag and stood up. "It's just what I feel. It's what I like, you know?"

Lei giggled. "Gin, hon, you've never _had_ a possessive boyfriend. So how would you know?" 

"You knew you liked girls, didn't you?" I pointed out as we filed out of the room behind everybody else. 

"Whatever, Gin," shrugged Lei. "Gonna come study with me?"  


"Can't, I have Quidditch, remember?" I rolled my eyes as we walked down the corridor. "I swear, Harry is working us to the bone just because he wants to feel like he's doing something instead of just sitting around. Oh, that was awful for me to say. I'm sorry. But seriously, he's working us so much harder than I thought he would…" I trailed off in my justification of my words. My mouth runs away with me sometimes and I say things that I really regret later. 

But of course Leilani is the sweetest girl in the world so she just laughed and hugged me. "Try to survive practice, okay? I need your Arithmancy help!" 

I laughed. "Aww, damn, take all the fun of everything why don't you? I don't _want _to survive! You're so _mean_!"

Lei hit me. "Just go," she told me, shaking her head. 

I hurried up to Gryffindor Tower to put my stuff away, then ran through the halls to get to the Quidditch field. Harry yells at us if we're late, and I don't have much time between the end of class and the beginning of practice, so I always have to rush. Unfortunately, I wasn't looking where I was going enough, and ran smack into someone and toppled over. 

"Sorry, sorry!" I exclaimed, looking to see who I'd slammed into. Bloody hell, it was Draco Malfoy. I winced as I stood up, waiting for some sort of insult to me or my family. To my surprise, it never came, he just smirked at me. 

"Think nothing of it, Virginia," he said, then waved his hand to tell me to leave and he turned around and continued walking. I gaped at him for a moment, then realized I was wasting time and ran out to the field and slipped into the locker rooms. The only other girl on the team was Chrys, a fourth-year, and I waved to her as I changed into my Quidditch robes. We headed out together to grab our brooms from the broom shed, then ran back to the pitch where Harry yelled at us for being a minute late. 

"Alright everybody, today we're going to train train train! There's no point in doing strategy if you don't have the muscle, strength, and technique to pull them off!" Harry was yelling at us. He did that a lot. "So put down your broomsticks everyone, you're going to strengthen up those muscles the best way you can-- _without _magic. On your backs, and we're going to do sit ups for ten minutes! Don't I dare see you stop!" I winced. 

"The Muggle way?" squealed Chrys. "And on the _ground_? It's all wet and soggy!"

Harry strode right up to her and got in her face. "Do you like being on this team?" 

"Yes…" she looked lost. 

"Then get on the ground and do the sit ups! NOW!"

Chrys practically whimpered and fell backwards, making an "oomph" when her butt hit the ground. I sat down tenderly and began the exercise. Trust Harry to shake things up. I was disappointed that he'd managed to do that and also suck the fun out of Quidditch, though. After the sit ups he ran around the field with us, making us each outer post in ten laps around the field. By the end of that, it wasn't even half an hour into the practice and I was already tired out. Thankfully, he had us do stretches then, which let me catch my breath. 

Through the whole thing, when I wasn't too tired to think that is, I was wondering about Draco. Virginia, he called me. Nobody called me that, but it was more amazing that he bothered to call me by my first name rather than "Weasley." He'd been staring at me that morning, too. What was he getting at? Was he just trying to confuse me? I made a mental note to be careful around him. 

Finally we were released from practice, and I sprawled out onto the ground while everyone else wearily went to the changing rooms. I thought I was alone on the pitch, so when a voice above my head asked "Tired?", I screeched and shot up to look who was there. 

Harry was chuckling. "You okay, Gin?" he asked. He reached out his hand, and I grabbed it and let him pull me up. I brushed myself off and discovered that my robes were all wet and muddy. Damn it. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, you big bully!" I teased him. 

"Who me?" He looked totally innocent. "It's for your own good!"

"That's what they always say," I muttered, sticking my tongue out at him. Harry grinned at me.

"Don't stick it out unless you intend to you use it," he told me with a wink. I rolled my eyes and hit him with my broomstick. 

"OW!" he exclaimed, rubbing his arm. "What was that for?"

"Either for plotting to kill me with your training schedule, or flirting with a girl who has a boyfriend. Take your pick." I fluttered my eyelashes at him to take the sting out of what I was saying, then strode off the field to get changed. As always, I had a lot of homework to do, and if I wanted to catch my friends' study party I needed to get a move on. 


End file.
